|
New York to Ban Bicycles on 3 Major Avenues
New York Times, July 23, 1987
By Alan Finder
In an effort to reduce accidents caused by speeding bicycle messengers, New
York City will ban all bicyclists from Park, Madison and Fifth Avenues in
midtown Manhattan between 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. on weekdays, under a three month
experiment announced yesterday by the Koch administration.
The ban will begin Aug. 31, and it will extend along the three avenues from
31st to 59th Streets. Riders will be encouraged to use bicycle lanes already
established on the Avenue of the Americas leap and Broadway. City officials
said that those lanes will be repainted and that transportation workers will
be assigned to keep them clear, by towing cars if necessary.
Mayor Koch, in announcing the experiment at a City Hall news conference,
said he was also considering the creation of more stringent licensing requirements
for commercial bicycle riders and for the messenger companies that employ
them.
The Mayor said a significant number of bicyclists run red lights, ride on
sidewalks and the wrong way on one-way streets, and fall to yield right-of-way
to pedestrians. These riders "imperil the lives of New Yorkers every single
day," he said.
The Mayor said the problem had been worsened by the growth of bicycle messenger
businesses and the fact that many messengers are paid by the number of deliveries
they make each day.
"This business arrangement greatly encourages the speeding and the dangerous
riding habits which threaten the safety of any New Yorker who is not blessed
with eyes in the back of his or her head," the Mayor said.
"What they're doing is scaring the public to death," said Police Commissioner
Benjamin Ward, "and we've got to do something about it."
Groups representing recreational bicycle riders and the messenger companies
assailed the mayor's action. They said the police should simply enforce traffic
laws more rigorously.
They also complained that the city had not consulted them about the prohibition,
and they said that hundreds of thousands of safe bicycle riders would be
inconvenienced by a few daredevil riders.
In 1981, 399 collisions between bicyclists and pedestrians were reported
throughout the city. The number grew to 707 in 1985, and last year it declined
to 640.
In 1985, two people were killed in accidents between bicyclists and pedestrians,
and 24 were killed in accidents that involved bicycles and motor vehicles,
according to Leland T. Jones, a spokesman for the Mayor. Last year, three
people died as the result of bike-pedestrian collisions, and nine were killed
in accidents between bicycles and motor vehicles, Mr. Jones said.
The Mayor and other city officials said the number of fatalities and accidents
declined because the police last year issued nearly three times as many summonses
for violations of traffic regulations as it did in 1985.
"Yet despite this progress, there are still too many bicyclists who just
do not obey the law", Mr. Koch said.
The Mayor said the three-month ban would test whether "a new bicycle-free
zone can improve safety in midtown without impairing the ability of bicycle
messengers to earn a living. About 12 percent of all accidents involving
bikes and pedestrians throughout the city last year occurred in midtown Manhattan.
Slightly more than half of the collisions in midtown occurred between 10
AM and 4 PM, city officials said. Ross Sandler, the city's Transportation
Commissioner, said the hours of the ban were also selected so as not to interfere
with people who commute to work on their bicycles. Mr. Sandier said an estimated
20,000 to 30,000 people commute by bike each day to jobs in Manhattan south
of 60th Street.
Roger J. Herz, executive director of Bicycle Transportation Action, a group
that lobbies on behalf of safe bicycling, said that state law prohibits municipalities
from establishing rules preventing bicyclists from using roads, except for
limited access highways. Mr. Herz called the Mayor's plan "totally irrational,"
and said his group would go to court if necessary' to block it.
Mr. Jones said, however, that the City Charter specifically grants the Transportation
Commissioner the right to issue vehicular and pedestrian regulations. Mr.
Sandler will actually promulgate the bicycle ban.
Riders who violate the prohibition will be given summonses for disobeying
a sign, which usually results in a fine of between $40 and $60, officials
said.
Steve Stollman, president of the International Conference on Appropriate
Transportation, which works to encourage bicycle use in New York City, said,
'everybody agrees that something needs to be done."
But the city should punish bicyclists who behave in an assaultive way," Mr.
Stollman said, and not all bike riders.
Nancy J. Cooper, president of the Association of Messenger Services, said
the city could curb dangerous riders by reporting them to their employers,
which she said it now fails to do. "The system for regulation is there,"
Ms. Cooper said. "They are just not using it."
Robert Wyatt, who owns a Manhattan messenger service, said the ban on the
three midtown avenues would increase the time it takes his messengers to
snake deliveries and would probably force him to increase his rates.
Commercial bicycle riders and their employers are now required to register
with the city. The messengers are also required to wear a sign on their bicycle
identifying the company for which they work and to carry an identification
card.
|
|
